Comics a "gateway" to reading
By: Andrea Koskey
Examiner Staff Writer
March 2, 2009
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| Joey Tufo, 22, dressed as the Green Lantern, looks at items from the DC Comics booth under a large Superman drawing at the WonderCon 2009 convention in San Francisco, Friday, Feb. 27, 2009. The convention will run through Sunday, March 1, at the Moscone Center South in San Francisco. (AP) |
SAN FRANCISCO — When high school teacher Puja Arora was in school, she had an English teacher who allowed her to read a comic book as part of the required curriculum. It’s a learning tool she wants to pass on to her students.
“The fact that he respected my choice as something that qualifies as literature really stuck with me,” said Arora, a Walnut Creek resident. “It is literature.”
Arora was one of dozens of teachers, librarians and comic-book gurus who participated in a forum Sunday on ways to use comics in the classroom. The forum was held on the last day of WonderCon, the comic and sci-fi convention at The City’s Moscone Center.
Comics are “a gateway drug,” said panelist Robyn Hill, an associate professor at National University in San Diego. “Kids who read comics often branch out to read other genres and novels.”
Arora said she is teaching her freshmen and sophomore English students about plot and character development using short stories. She said using comics may be another way to engage students.
“I have a lot of struggling readers and English-language learners,” Arora said. “This might be a new way to access English.”
Forum attendee Gina Padilla of Campbell said she is excited about the possibility of using comics with her after-school group of eighth-graders.
“To hear adults want [comics] to come into the classroom is a new thought,” she said of the panelists, who encouraged comics as a learning tool. “It’s pretty radical, but I’m ready to try it.”
One of the biggest challenges teachers face, Hill said, is the stereotypes of comics as light reads, along with budgetary difficulties all districts face to purchase new materials.
Hill said comics are also a way to engage students who are used to the Internet offering several things at once, such as pictures and words, as opposed to books with just words.
“Kids today expect more visuals,” Hill said. “They’re accustomed to the Internet, and [comics] are a way to engage that.”
